#BodyGoals
Did you read the article by Ken Goe about the University of Oregon, their track and field coach Robert Johnson, and what former athletes had to say about the atmosphere/culture of body-shaming?
If not…you can read it at the link below: (might need to copy and paste into your browser if a live link isn’t showing)
https://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/2021/10/women-athletes-allege-body-shaming-within-oregon-ducks-track-and-field-program.html
And based on the quote tweets and replies to Ken Goes tweet sharing the article readers are largely divided into two camps:
Camp one believes that talking about weight and body fat for any reason is harmful.
Camp two believes that athletes should get over it, that it’s part of sport.
And then there’s me. Strongly ensconced in camp three.
Camp three. I believe that for an athlete that is attempting to reach the next level of performance pretending mass is not a variable is us not addressing a potential influencer of performance- at the same time acting as if the number on the scale or that an athlete’s body fat percentage IS the performance indicator is straight bullshit.
In the article Robert Johnson is quoted as saying “track is nothing but numbers. A good mathematician probably could be a good track coach.”
I cringed at this. Like I think my right eyelid twitched as I read it and I am the person that says track is physics and math is the language through which we interpret it.
But I’m not even a coach and I know there’s a lot more involved in the development of athletes than crunching numbers.
Anyway…speaking from personal experience. I had to lose fifteen pounds this past season. I was healthy at 152, I had a normal period, I was sleeping really good, and my diet was also pretty clean.
BUT…
I was slow. And I couldn’t get off the ground to jump. No way I could be top 3 at the Olympic Trials if I was getting 7th in a prelim at an indoor meet. Now, because I too have an obsession with numbers I knew that for all of my major medal performances in the past I weighed between 132-135 pounds. I have never had a season where I jumped over 7 meters or run below 11 seconds in the 100 weighing more than 135 pounds. I also knew what my numbers were in the weight room at those peak performances. So I made an educated guess that my goal would be to drop 15.
Those two data points weight and strength were how I determined where my optimal weight was. I measured my body fat percentage on occasion out of curiosity but my focus was to get as lean as possible while being as strong as possible.
It was never about being lean for leans sake. And when the numbers said I had a big drop in weight but an equally pathetic showing in the weight room, guess what… we adjusted the numbers. Because it was never just about the numbers.
But at 152 I was power cleaning 205 pounds. And at 135 I still power cleaned 205. So without losing power/strength I dropped some excess weight I clearly didn’t need to be carrying. Without any negative impact on my strength and performance. That’s the goal. It was never about one number.
But here’s the difference between what seems to be my approach versus the UO approach I’ve spent the afternoon reading about.
My target moves. The reason I thought I could stay at 152 this past season versus 135 from my last medal performance in 2017 ( four years prior) is because I was holding space for the reality that the body changes over time. That simply deciding on 135 just because it worked before was stupid. My training numbers were decent and my weight room numbers consistent. But it took getting my ass whooped at Paul Doyle’s ATL indoor meet in Arkansas for me to realize that for the VERY SPECIFIC goal I had for myself I needed to be willing to go to the next level. So my target moves, and it’s based on me and only me. Not some industry standard or a table you can get from google. This time it was 15 pounds, but next time it could be 5, or 2, or 7 or 0. And that’s okay.
The descent is slow. Weight loss can’t be the only goal for an athlete. We literally need food to fuel our training. We need fuel to aid in our recovery. That means at no point is starvation an option. That means you can expect weight loss to be SLOW. And that’s okay. Because the reality is…most of us start training in Oct/Nov and nothing really counts until May. That’s a long time to reach your optimal strength and weight numbers in a healthy and sustainable way.
Elite is Extreme. Being elite (and you can be elite on any level) is an extreme lifestyle. I understood that my weight loss goals were tied to a very specific endeavor and that’s it. The number on the scale was not indicative of my value as a human being. I got two dexascans a year. The first during my first month of training. I would dread it. Because I knew the numbers would be high. And by high I mean…not peak competition numbers. Which is obvious. I’d get the scan- look at the results and understand that “it is what it is, this is my starting point” that’s it. It meant nothing else to me. Depending on my psychological state I’d get a second scan a month before trials. I say it was dependent on my psychological state because there were some seasons where everything seemed like it was difficult, and I didn’t want to go into the trials with information about my body when I had to show up with that body and compete regardless. Some seasons I was on top of everything and the scan validated my work. Point is, I had the space to make those decisions.
Weight is just one slice of the performance pie. If you want to leave no stone unturned by all means this is an area to take a close look at. But you can also level up and optimize every other area of your life/training/recovery and STILL perform well. It really comes down to this- what will bring YOU the most satisfaction in your athletic journey. I don’t know if you remember me explaining this in a previous blog post but the prefix “satis-“ is latin for “enough” and action, well….we all know what action means. So ask yourself what approach is “enough action” for you and what you want to achieve. Decide and then do.
At My Track Class with San Jose State I spent a lot of time fielding questions about nutrition, meal plans, and weight. And any time an athlete said “how do I lose (or gain) weight?” I asked. “Why do you need to?” And the usual response is some kind of half shrug, and a throwaway comment about a previous coach who said such and such was too big, or the guys were too little. I then asked, “was that observation based on any data? Like how you were sprinting? And what your weight room numbers were?” And of course they’d say no. And so then I’d say, “then we have no idea what you need to do in either direction do we?”
Our nutrition conversations revolve around fueling properly, eating clean, whole foods, and meal timing…and getting rid of all that damn sugar in our diets. Because, I personally believe we are like machines. We need to be precisely maintained, well oiled, properly fueled, and sufficiently rested.
But a coach who thinks the secret to performance lies in your body fat percentage is like having your pit crew captain look at your car and say we need to drop ten pounds because of drag, and proceeds to carelessly discard a wheel, and then both bumpers. Because who cares how it functions right? At least we’re down ten!
When it comes to collegiate athletics I get that there is a lot of pressure to do as you’re told, especially if you’re on scholarship, especially if you bought the lie (sorry to put it so bluntly) that performance is solely tied to body fat percentage and what the scale says. But here’s the deal…at the end of the day you came to school to achieve YOUR goals. Don’t forget that. YOUR goals are valid, and what you are willing to do to achieve them is a choice that only you should make. And yes, we hope that your goals aligns with the coaching philosophy of the school you chose. And if it doesn’t I hope that YOU are important enough to YOU to get out, walk away, opt out…and find yourself a coach and a team that does.
There’s plenty of shame to go around here when it comes to this subject, and none of it belongs to the athletes.
Do better.
If you want to see how I approach the subject with athletes who reach out to me, I’ll share my Performance Fuel presentation with you. Don’t panic- it’s free.
** Previously the Performance Fuel Presentation was listed as a free product in my shop. The number of downloads flooded my inbox so click the button above and voila! There you have it.